


For the Love of the Game

by Rachel Wilder (rwilder)



Category: Friday Night Lights
Genre: Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-02
Updated: 2015-02-02
Packaged: 2018-03-10 03:20:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3274772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rwilder/pseuds/Rachel%20Wilder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Future Fic.  No matter what else had happened in their lives, they all loved football.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For the Love of the Game

**Author's Note:**

> For my beta and my muse…thank you for everything, [](http://shelbecat.livejournal.com/profile)[shelbecat](http://shelbecat.livejournal.com/).

**Title** : For the Love of the Game  
 **Author** : [](http://rachel-wilder.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://rachel-wilder.livejournal.com/)**rachel_wilder**  
 **Rating** : T (aka PG-13)  
 **Summary** : Future Fic. No matter what else had happened in their lives, they all loved football.

**For the Love of the Game**

He walked out onto the field. He was nervous looking at all the other kids. They seemed to all know each other, but he didn't know anyone. He looked down at the ball in his hands. It was his special ball—the one his dad had given him the day he taught him how to spiral. His mom told him to leave it at home, that he might lose it, but he wanted that ball with him.

First day of Pee Wees. He kicked the ground and thought it was a stupid name. He wasn't a Pee Wee.

"Ben, come here, please!"

He stopped and turned back at the sound of his dad's voice. He could see his dad signaling him to come back over by the sidelines. He jogged over there.

"Ben, I want you to meet someone," his dad said.

There was a man in a blue windbreaker standing next to his dad.

"Nice to meet you, sir," Ben said as he stuck his hand out like his grandma had taught him.

"It's nice to meet you, Ben," the man replied as he shook his hand. "Good lookin' ball you've got there."

Ben looked down at the ball, with the names scrawled all over it. "Yes sir. It was my dad's ball. He gave it to me to learn a spiral on."

The man nodded.

"Ben, this is my coach—Coach Taylor," his dad said.

Ben looked back up at the man. He'd seen pictures of the coach with his dad. This man was older, but it was him—the coach his dad first met in Pee Wees. His coach in high school, too.

"So, your dad taught you to throw a spiral?" the coach asked.

"Yes, sir," Ben answered.

"Well, he's one of the best coaches I've ever worked with," the coach replied.

Ben smiled. The other kids never believed him when he told them his dad had been a coach, that he'd been the best quarterback in Texas. But his grandpa told him that and his Grandpa Mitch never lied to him. And other kids were stupid.

"Want to toss a few?" the coach asked.

Ben nodded. He wanted to show the coach what his dad had taught him, that his dad was still the best coach.

"Okay, then, drop back twenty yards and get it in the air," the coach instructed.

Ben tucked the ball in his arm and ran back twenty yards. He pulled his arm back and let the ball roll off his fingers just like his dad had told him. The ball sailed easily through the air and into the coach's hands.

"Again," the coach instructed as he threw the ball back to Ben.

He loved how the ball felt in his hands. He loved the look on his dad's face when he threw the ball.

He loved football.

/-/  
Jason watched as Ben threw the ball to Coach Taylor. He could still feel what it was like to have that ball roll off his fingers and slice through the air like an arrow. This was where he'd first learned the art of football, where he'd first realized he could do something the other kids couldn't. It was where he had met Tim Riggins.

Jason had been nervous that first day, too, but he couldn't stop staring at the kid with the long hair all snarled up in the back like his mom hadn't cut it or combed it in days.

_  
"What you lookin' at sissy boy?" the kid with the messy hair asked._

_"Nothin'," Jason replied, even though he knew he was staring at the kid. That kid had messy hair and his shirt was on backwards and he didn't have football shoes._

_"You gonna throw that ball?" the kid asked._

_"Yeah," Jason replied, eagerly._

_"Well, if you can throw it, I can catch it," the kid replied and then he took off down the field._

_Jason cocked his arm back and let the ball go. It floated straight down and into the hands of that kid._

_Timmy Riggins._  
  
"You lose your way on memory road?"

Jason looked over and smiled at Tim, who had dropped down to sit on the ground next to his chair. "Yeah, something like that."

"Man, too bad I didn't knock up some girl in high school so we could rerun the whole Street/Riggins dynasty all over again," Tim replied.

"You couldn't go out and scrounge up some foster kid or do the big brother program?" Jason teased him back. "You're just not trying as hard as you could, Riggins. Classic."

"Sorry, Street—I leave all the over-achieving to you," Tim answered. "He looks good. If I squint my eyes it looks kind of like you out there with Coach."

"Yeah," Jason replied, quietly.

"You get a lot of grief over letting him come?" Tim asked.

Jason shrugged. "He's a boy in Texas who loves football. How was I going to stop him? How was she?"

"Yeah," Tim replied.

"I'm not sure my mom is going to speak to me again," Jason added.

"I'll sweet talk her," Tim offered. "I played football, and I turned out okay."

Jason laughed. "Okay, whatever you say, Tim."

He looked out over the field again. Ben was headed over to the larger group of boys. The coaches were getting ready to split them into training squads."

God, he still loved the game. He loved football.

/-/  
Eric Taylor stood on the edge of the field, Ben's ball in his hands. The little boy had headed over to be selected for a team and Eric had offered to keep his treasured ball. Eric flipped the ball over, looking at all the familiar names from that first state champion team in 2006.

He smiled and shook his head. It had been a long time ago. He looked over at the edge of the field where Tim Riggins sat next to Jason.

Jason Street. He embodied Eric's greatest hopes and his deepest fears. He was still the finest athlete and person that Eric had coached. He was pretty sure there would never be another Jason Street.

He watched as Ben paired up with one of the Warner twins. He started tossing the ball back and forth. The boy had good hands.

Just like his dad.

Eric looked down at the grass and scuffed his foot against the line on the ground. He looked back up over at Jason and Tim. He would never get used to seeing Jason in that chair, his hands in their tense pose. It made him unable to play football, but it didn't take anything away from his ability to be a great role model for Ben. The kid had spoken about his dad with such pride. Eric wasn't surprised. Of course Jason would be as good at being a dad as he was at everything else he did in life.

But still, he knew that it must hurt Jason to not be over there on the edge of the field with the other dads, running down the field catching the balls that the little hands were throwing.

It would always be different for Jason.

It had always been different for Eric after that night, but one thing had never changed.

He loved that game more than almost anything in his life except for his girls. He loved football.

/-/  
"Do you have your sweatshirt?" Jason asked Ben as the little boy dropped his belongings on the ground next to Jason's chair.

Tim watched as Jason reached down to pick up Ben's backpack and check its contents. Jason was a great dad. Tim wasn't surprised, but it always made him smile to see just how good Jason was at it.

_  
"Just guess," Jason said._

_"Why do I have to guess?" Tim asked as he looked over at his friend, sitting next to him in the truck cab. "Just tell me what's going on, Street."_

_"No, I want you to guess."_

_He wasn't going to give it up, clearly, Tim thought. This had better not be another wild goose chase after a cure. He wasn't ready to go there again and Tim really hoped that neither was Jason._

_"You knocked a chick up," he finally said. It was the most outrageous thing he could come up with, so when Jason told him he was back with Lyla or he was dating Julie Taylor or Saracen was his half-brother it would not seem that crazy._

_"How did you know?" Jason asked._

_Tim turned and looked at his friend. "What the hell, Street…no, you're kidding me, aren't you?"_

_Jason shook his head and from the look on his face, Tim knew his friend wasn't messing with him. "Nope, it's true—I'm having a kid."_

__

"So, when I was in Pee Wees, after practice your Grandma Joanne would always take us out for pizza," Tim said as he stood up, Ben's football shoes in his hand. "You hungry for pizza, little Streeter?"

"Absolutely!" Ben called out. "Can we go get pizza, Dad?"

"Sounds good," Jason responded.

Tim followed behind as Jason and Ben headed for Jason's truck. Football was this thing that fathers and sons shared. His dad had come around a bit, but lucky for him, he'd met Jason pretty early on and Jason had been more than willing to share his dad.

Tim would do anything to help Jason be the kind of dad he wanted to be to Ben.

He loved Jason just that much. And he loved football.

* * *

  
 **Disclaimer** : All characters who appear in these stories belong to their respective creators, including Imagine Entertainment, NBC Universal Television Studio and Film 44.  
 **Author's Note** : For my beta and my muse…thank you for everything, [](http://shelbecat.livejournal.com/profile)[**shelbecat**](http://shelbecat.livejournal.com/).


End file.
